Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

Colchester Borough Council and its partner agencies are committed to working with the Essex Safeguarding Children Board to keep children safe from all forms of abuse and neglect.

Sunday 18 March isCSE Awareness Day and the Safer Colchester Partnership wants to play its full part in getting involved with this national campaign to raise awareness and help protect children.

The Campaign will involve:

Raising awareness of Online Child Sexual Abuse – including the issue of youth produced sexual imagery.

Children and young people are often the experts in navigating around the internet, and the online world is becoming increasingly available to them through the use of smart phones, varied and changing aps, online gaming and internet sites. A survey in Essex reported that above 80% of Year 6 pupils and 95% of Year 8 pupils reported that they had a mobile phone with access to the internet. The threat of abuse is a serious one, online abuse is present in over 60% of our investigations across Essex in respect of child sexual exploitation.

Working with a range of organisations across our communities during the week 18 March – 24 March in order to share messages including:

Highlighting the risks to children from online threats

Providing tips to parents on what they can do to help keep their child safe online.

Providing advice to parents on what to do if they have concerns.

Supporting children to use their mobiles and internet safely, responsibly and positively.

Providing advice to children on what to do if they are worried about something they have seen or been asked to do online.

Upcoming Events

Slavery is not merely a historical relic. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.

In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.

Facts and figures: An estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage. There are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world. 1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children. Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million people in forced labour imposed by state authorities. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors. ILO has adopted a new legally binding Protocol designed to strengthen global efforts to eliminate forced labour, which entered into force in November 2016.

The 50 for Freedom campaign aims to persuade at least 50 countries to ratify the Forced Labour Protocol by 2018.